He half-scowls, furrows his brow, and wrinkles his face like the most ancient ’90s baby in Los Angeles County. “I hate spending money,” he says when I ask if he’s happy to be here. But if you think Vince Staples would do that, then you don’t know Vince Staples.
On the occasion of a big purchase like this, you could imagine the buyer breaking into a muted Money Dance, Instagram flex, or something. I did the cheap route with this car,” he says, referencing his soon-to-be jettisoned BMW 325i, before correcting himself: “Affordable is a better word.” Staples hunches forward in the car dealer’s seat, unleashing clips of fast speech, tapping his feet and rocking back-and-forth with anxious movements.
Smyth’s client roster also includes comedian Dave Chappelle and producer Chad Hugo of The Neptunes, but the bond between these two seems more familial than your usual manager-client relationship - Smyth is more Obi-Wan Kenobi than Colonel Tom Parker. “He didn’t even have a driver’s license,” says his manager, Corey Smyth, alluding to the half-decade before Staples signed with Def Jam’s ARTium imprint at the end of 2012. Staples has transcended comparisons, but if you needed to make one: he’s the closest heir to the Ice Cube of Death Certificate crossed with the Ice Cube of Friday. He strips away the glorification of gangsta rap and reminds listeners that their entertainment doesn’t come without a body count and other brutal consequences. Instead of chasing radio anthems or major co-signs, he made an artful double-album with a cover inspired by Ian Curtis, mournful dirges (“Summertime”) that could be Sparklehorse songs, and haunting videos (“Señorita”) that attack the safari mentality that outsiders often apply to hip-hop. Since Staples’s debut mixtape in 2011, he has used his songs to indict police brutality, civic apathy, gentrification, racial profiling, and the failed educational system. Instead, they’re a perfectly caustic, deadpan companion to his earnest, unsparing music.
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If he were a white liberal arts grad and not a Crip who happens to rap really well, you could imagine his tweets getting him a book or TV development deal.
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On social media, he will slyly condescend to followers too dim to follow his political logic by using a ridiculous Liam Neeson movie to explain the significance of the transatlantic slave trade, then shift straight into mocking Clippers point guard Chris Paul’s argyle Jordans. Staples is the kind of guy to cheekily accept a check from Spotify to play a show, then use said performance to point out the perceived unfairness of the company’s streaming model.
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